Get Ready for Roy!

So…those of you who last week asked if we might have something up our collective sleeve? Well…I’ll admit it now. You were right. I’m delighted to announce that Popular Woodworking has negotiated an exclusive deal to bring back all the episodes from the first 28 seasons of “The Woodwright’s Shop.” We plan to bring out each season on a multi-disc DVD set and broadcast individual episodes on a special “Roy Underhill Channel” at ShopClass On Demand.

We’re starting off with the first three years and Season 20 of “The Woodwright’s Shop” (Roy says Season 20 is among his favorites). Later in the year and into next year, we’ll be releasing more chunks of Roy (as it were) for your viewing pleasure and traditional hand-tool edification.

I don’t have much else to report at this point – but I can promise you that the DVD sets and the Roy ShopClass channel will be reasonably priced (the only gouges you’ll encounter are those Roy uses at his lathe).

So hang in there – vintage Roy is on the way. And below, please enjoy this short clip from the first episode of “The Woodwright’s Shop” – an amuse-bouche, if you will, for everything to come.

62 thoughts on “Get Ready for Roy!”

With new computer-generated pole lathes and Roubo benches added in. I’m sure there will be a scene where Roy “conveniently” has a saw drawn on him first before he pulls his out and takes out the bounty hunter in the cantina in Mos Eisley.

…oh wait.. never mind… that’s Star Wars’ re-release…
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AWESOME!!! I can’t wait to watch the originals and am so very very excited. Roy is not just one of my favorite woodworking personalities, he is one of my favorite entertainers/teachers. His charisma and personality on his shows make me feel like I’ve known the man for years even though I’ve (to my dismay) never met him.

I have to go now as my wife (while reading over my shoulder) has just commented just how nerdy I am and that “no one will get the jokes… woodworking nerds are different than star wars nerds”

We’ll get the jokes. I still laugh whenever I think about one old episode, in which Roy went to Scandinavia to visit a reproduction Viking village. When they rolled the end credits, on one line was “Norway by Slartibartfast”. I don’t know if Roy, himself, or one of his production crew was responsible for the gag. I have the episode on video tape somewhere, but alas I no longer have either a TV or a VCR to watch it again, so this is fantastically good news.

Megan, Great news. I’ve been getting back into woodworking, and a lot of it was driven by finding Roy on PBS again one day. Question though: Why are the most recent seasons left out? Is it a licensing issue that somewhere down the line they’ll become available?